Hi guys, after reading many stories about the new 200 wanted to give my personal opinion. Have skied behind it last week and must say the wake is truly very good, especiallymy wife who is only beginning in the course liked it very much because of the very smooth and soft wake it produces, especially at low speeds Iwould say. We have a 09 196 ourselves and honestly the wake is even better than ours. And that is where it ends for me atleast.... no 200 has a nice and big love seat to, stitching inside also quite nice, but then again stitching and fabrics of 09-196 almost comparable... But,and know comes the bad, engine noise is painfull, it really is after hearing that it spins more rpm was kind of reluctant to the stories thinking well how much of a difference can 300-400 rpm be anyway. But its a big difference this was with the excal and really was dissapointed at 55 felt like we where doing 64 or somehting, engine is almost maxed out at 58 that is for sure... Now because engine is working really quite hard am also sure of 2 things reliability will go down.... fuel consumption will go up... and that is what kills it for me... beatifull looking boat but would never buy it, would probably opt for a malibu lxi with monsoon engine now, because not only should the skiing be fun, but think the boat driving should be fun and have a sporty feel to it as well. Our 196 feel like a small rocket in comparison+ no more barefooting behind a 200 or you will kill it off in no time, with 196, and especially malibu which feels even faster, shouldbe no problem, not even hurting it. also from a design perspective, a hardcore three event boat shouldn't be that big, who cares if you can stick 6 skis on the sides, i mean honestly how often are ppl really using this. No they actually should have gone the other way, make a even smaller boat then the 196 that would have the performance of the 196 with the small 5.0 liter engine and really make it fuell efficiant, then it would have been a top seller amongst clubs and hardcore skiers. Oh did i mention the trick wake of these boats are not that good, to much air in them makes for very difficult ride... Anywaydon't want to dis correct craft to much because absolutely love the 196i have, knowing that it is flawed for tricks, and really liked the wakeof my previous 1997 196 with gt-40 as well. But if i where to buy now i would go for malibu, good slalom wake, good trick wake, and optional wedge where you can make it beginners wakeboard boat to, fast, reliability over the past seems to be solved, some things still look a bit flimsy, but less so than in the past as well... anyway, don'twant to start a fight thread, just giving my 2 cents...